CNI News thanks Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC, http://nwlink.com/~ufocntr/) for permission to reprint this personal account of an unusual meeting with alleged government agents. Davenport writes:

I was approached by employees of the U. S. federal government, who requested a meeting. They first contacted the Hotline on Monday, April 28, 1997. At that time, I was preparing to drive home from Spokane, WA, where I had made a presentation to the MUFON chapter. I returned their call on the morning of April 29 and confirmed that they were who they had represented in their message they were. They requested that we meet sometime soon.

We met on the east coast, beginning at 10:32 am (EDT) on Friday, May 17, 1997, and had what was to have been a one-hour long meeting, but which went to four hours nonstop.

At the beginning of their meeting, they made their position vis-a-vis the UFO phenomenon very clear. They represented the following three items in rapid sequence:

1) That the UFO phenomenon is undeniably real;

2) That UFOs are what they appear to be, namely sophisticated craft under some kind of intelligent control;

3) Their "organization" is "worried" about them.

The meeting was to have been dedicated to those reports NUFORC has on file that place alleged UFOs in proximity to commercial airliners. In fact, we ended up talking about many subjects. The subject of principal interest to them was TWA 800. They felt that not all of the information about that accident was getting to the American People.

One question they posed to me that almost "tumbled my gyros" was whether I had any evidence on file that would suggest to me that there might be a segment within the U. S. government that was acting in an extraconstitutional manner, related in any way to the UFO phenomenon.

My answer was "No," although I believe I suggested that there was a concerted effort on the part of senior members of the government to keep the minds of Americans off the UFO issue. After some rumination on this incident, it occurred to me that they might be testing to establish whether I subscribe, in a "wholesale" fashion, to the government conspiracy issue.

They requested that I not reveal who they are, or what part of the government they work for, to which I consented. They expressed a strong preference to not have members of the press knocking on their doors.

They were very cordial... very interesting and stimulating conversationalists. Not MIB's, supporting my notion that MIB's are probably a fictional construct.

The public release in mid-July of a strongly pro-UFO assessment from a committee of high ranking French military officers and scientists, reported in the August 1 edition of CNI News, has been met with deafening silence from the U.S. government, military and news media.

But the French committee, known as COMETA, included members of such impressive rank and authority that its UFO assessment can hardly be ignored as the work of crackpots or mere enthusiasts. According to Bernard Thouanel, editor at VSD magazine, which published the public edition of the report, COMETA originally directed their assessment only to the top level of the French government, and only afterward consented to a public release. Thouanel told CNI News in an email memorandum that French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin "met directly [with] one of the COMETA participants privately during more than half an hour... This meeting occurred before the beginning of the summer, and obviously before the publication release date (July 16, 1999) on newsstands.... The Prime Minister looked very interested in this problem." Thouanel said he was not at liberty to say more at this time, but that he had very high confidence in the information he had received. He said he assumed it would be some months before the French government made a formal, visible response to the COMETA recommendations.

A strong response would seem warranted, given COMETA's findings. Their assessment unequivocally states that some UFOs appear to represent physical technology of unknown origin; that the extraterrestrial hypothesis may be the best explanation in some cases and must not be dismissed; and that UFOs represent a matter of serious international security concern demanding coordinated global monitoring, study and response.

As far as CNI News can ascertain, no major news media in the United States, Britain or other western nations outside France have reported COMETA's findings. But a possibly related story appeared on August 17, 1999 in the British publication Electronic Telegraph. Headlined "X-Files version of history is backed by CIA report," the story summarized a recent historical review of UFO studies undertaken by the CIA during the period 1947 to 1990.

The CIA report, written by the agency's then-historian Gerald K. Haines, was originally released following its completion in 1997. At the time, it drew fire from several UFO researchers including Stanton Friedman and Bruce Maccabee, who were quick to note numerous inaccuracies and questionable claims -- for example, the claim that more than half of all U.S. UFO reports of the late 1950s and 1960s could be accounted for as sightings of the then top-secret reconnaissance planes U-2 and SR-71. But after a brief round of controversy, the report faded into obscurity.

Now, according to Electronic Telegraph writer Michael Smith, Haines' CIA report has resurfaced, this time at the request of a British academic journal, "Intelligence and National Security," which is publishing the full text in their current summer edition. As a possible exercise in low-key spin control, the timing of this republication may be more than coincidental.

In the words of Michael Smith, Haines' "highly critical report describes often bitter debates between real-life X-Files investigators who believed that 'the truth is out there' and their sceptical bosses. It records tales of bumbling undercover agents whose activities fuelled a widespread belief that the government was covering up what the agency described as 'extra-terrestrial visitations by intelligent beings'.... While the CIA investigations eventually concluded that all the sightings could be explained, the report concludes that 'misguided' attempts to keep them secret led to widespread belief of a government cover-up," Smith says.

Haines himself states that his historical review of the CIA's UFO involvement was commissioned at the end of 1993 by then-Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) R. James Woolsey. In Haines' words, "In September 1993 John Peterson, an acquaintance of Woolsey's, first approached the DCI with a package of heavily sanitized CIA material on UFOs released to UFOlogist Stanton T. Friedman. Peterson and Friedman wanted to know the reasons for the redactions. Woolsey agreed to look into the matter." (It is likely that the man Haines calls Peterson is John Petersen, a noted futurist who has occasionally written on the potentially huge impact of human contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. See, for example, his book "Out of the Blue," Arlington Institute 1997, p. 44f.) Also influencing Woolsey's action may have been his private meeting at about the same time with CSETI's Dr. Steven Greer.

The resulting report by Haines shows that the CIA took the UFO subject very seriously during the period 1947 through the early 1950s, and thereafter maintained a moderate and somewhat sporadic interest in the subject at least through the end of the 1980s (and very probably to the present moment). At the same time, however, Haines says that CIA officials were adamant about keeping the public unaware of any agency interest in the UFO controversy. "Air Force and CIA officials agreed that outside knowledge of Agency interest in UFOs would make the problem more serious. This concealment of CIA interest contributed greatly to later charges of a CIA conspiracy and coverup." The full text of Haines' study can be seen at http://www.odci.gov/csi/studies/97unclas/ufo.html.

The differences between COMETA's new UFO assessment and Haines' chronicle of CIA shenanigans are so stark, and the resurfacing of Haines' report is so neatly juxtaposed with COMETA's release, that one can only wonder if more than coincidence is at work.

On one hand, COMETA earnestly insists that UFOs are a serious matter demanding international attention. Not incidentally, COMETA calls attention to the strong appearance of official U.S. government disinformation with regard to some alleged UFO incidents, notably Roswell.

On the other hand, Gerald K. Haines paints an "official" historical picture of CIA bungling and dissension within the agency on how to handle the UFO problem. This long-running pattern of confusion and obfuscation naturally led to public suspicions of cover-up, he concedes. But behind it all, UFOs were repeatedly and unanimously found to represent nothing of security concern; nor were they judged to be scientifically inexplicable; nor likely to be of off-planet origin. From 1953 on, the CIA was far more concerned about public hysteria over UFOs than about the UFO phenomenon itself -- or so goes the official story. In other words, bungling aside, the CIA's alleged assessment of UFOs is in complete contradiction with that of COMETA.

In the view of CNI News, the international non-response to COMETA, coupled with the odd juxtaposition of Haines' CIA report, may well represent an intentional effort to blunt and contain the impact of COMETA. This view cannot be proven at this time; but we intend to pursue this story and its implications with all the resources at our disposal.

NOTE: North American readers can now purchase the full text of the COMETA report, in French, as published on July 16, 1999 by VSD magazine, from Arcturus Book Service, 1443 S.E. Port St. Lucie Blvd., Port St. Lucie, FL 34952. For information, email rgirard321@aol.com; or see the Arcturus Books section on the web at UFO City, http://www.ufocity.com; or call 561-398-0796. Price of the report is $10.95 plus postage.

Man lands on Mars, the elderly retire to the moon, humans are cloned.Welcome to the brave new world

By Arthur C. Clarke

DESPITE ALL CLAIMS TO the contrary, no one can predict the future, and Ihave always resisted all attempts to label me a "prophet." I prefer"extrapolator." What I have tried to do, at least in my non-fiction, isoutline possible "futures" - at the same time pointing out that totallyunexpected inventions or events can make any forecasts absurd after a veryfew years. The classic example is the statement in the late 1940s by thechairman of IBM then that the world market for computers was about five. Ihave more in my own office, and they are still breeding like rabbits . . .

But perhaps I'm in no position to criticize Thomas Watson Sr. In Transit ofEarth (1971), I put the first Mars landing in 1994: now we'll be lucky ifwe make it by 2010. On the other hand, when Prelude to Space was publishedin 1951, I thought I was being wildly optimistic by suggesting a moonmission in 1978. Neil and Buzz beat me by almost a decade.

Still, I take a modest pride in the fact that communications satellites areplaced exactly where I suggested in 1945, and that the name "Clarke Orbit"is now often used, if only because it's easier to say than "geostationaryorbit." And the chapter "The Century Syndrome" in my 1990 novel The Ghostfrom the Grand Banks, may well have been the first account, outside thetechnical literature, of the now-dreaded Millennium Bug - its cause and itscure.

Even so, the chronology that follows should be given with a "healthwarning." Some of the events listed (particularly the space missions) arealready scheduled, and will occur on the actual dates given. I believe allthe other events could happen, although several, I hope, will not.

In spite of the temptation, I have omitted many interesting andall-too-possible disasters, because optimism about the future is alwaysdesirable; it may help to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2008 On what would have been his 80th birthday, July 26, the film directorStanley Kubrick, who made 2001: A Space Odyssey, posthumously receives aspecial Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.

2009 A city in North Korea is devastated by the accidental explosion of anA-bomb. After a brief debate in the U.N., all nuclear weapons are destroyed.

2010 The first Quantum Generators (tapping space energy) are developed.Available in portable and household units from a few kilowatts upward, theycan produce electricity indefinitely. Central power stations close down;the age of pylons ends as grid systems are dismantled.

- In spite of protests against "Big Brother" government, electronicmonitoring virtually removes professional criminals from society.

2011 Largest living animal filmed: a 75-meter octopus in the MarianaTrench. By a curious coincidence, later that same year even larger marinecreatures are discovered when the first robot probes drill through the iceof Europa, and an entire new biota is revealed.

2012 Aerospace-planes enter service. The history of space travel hasrepeated that of aeronautics, although more slowly, because the technicalproblems are so much greater. From Yuri Gagarin to commercial space flighthas taken twice as long as from the Wright Brothers to the DC-3.

2013 On a flight sponsored by Bandar Seri Begawan, a Brunei prince becomesthe first member of a royal family to fly in space.

2014 Construction of Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins, by assembling andconverting the giant Shuttle tanks which had previously been allowed tofall back to Earth.

2015 An inevitable byproduct of the Quantum Generator is complete controlof matter at the atomic level. Thus the old dream of alchemy is realized ona commercial scale, often with surprising results. Within a few years,since they are more useful, lead and copper cost twice as much as gold.

2016 All existing currencies are abolished. The megawatt-hour becomes theunit of exchange.

2017 December 16. On his 100th birthday, Sir Arthur Clarke is one of thefirst guests in the Hilton Orbiter.

- China holds the first nationwide popular elections to its parliament.

2019 A major meteor impact occurs on the North Polar icecap. There is noloss of human life, but the resulting tsunamis cause considerable damagealong the coasts of Greenland and Canada. The long-discussed ProjectSpaceguard, to identify and deflect any potentially dangerous comets orasteroids, is finally activated

2020 Artificial Intelligence (AI) reaches the human level. From now onwardthere are two intelligent species on Planet Earth, one evolving far morerapidly than biology would ever permit. Interstellar probes carrying AIsare launched toward the nearer stars.

2021 The first humans land on Mars, and have some unpleasant surprises.

2024 Infra-red signals are detected coming from the center of the Milky WayGalaxy. They are obviously the product of a technologically advancedcivilization, but all attempts to decipher them fail.

2025 Neurological research finally leads to an understanding of all thesenses, and direct inputs become possible, bypassing eyes, ears, skin, etc.The inevitable result is the metal "Braincap" of which the 20th century'sWalkman was a primitive precursor. Anyone wearing this helmet, fittingtightly over the skull, can enter a whole universe of experience real orimaginary - and even merge in real-time with other minds. Apart from itsuse for entertainment and vicarious adventure, the Braincap is a boon todoctors, who can now experience their patients symptoms (suitablyattenuated). It also revolutionizes the legal profession; deliberate lyingis impossible. As the Braincap can only function properly on a completelybald head, wig-making becomes a major industry.

2026 Singapore becomes the world's first country to enforce Truth inAdvertising.

2036 China overtakes the U.S. in gross national product to become theworld's largest economy.

2040 The "Universal Replicator," based on nano-technology, is perfected:any object, however complex, can be created - given the necessary rawmaterial and the appropriate information matrix. Diamonds or gourmet mealscan, literally, be made from dirt. As a result, agriculture and industryare phased out, ending that recent invention in human history - work! Thereis an explosion in arts, entertainment and education. Hunter-gatheringsocieties are deliberately recreated; huge areas of the planet, no longerneeded for food production, are allowed to revert to their original state.Young people can now discharge their aggressive instincts by usingcross-bows to stalk big game, which is robotic and frequently dangerous.

2045 The totally self-contained, recycling, mobile home (envisaged almost acentury earlier by Buckminster Fuller) is perfected. Any additional carbonneeded for food synthesis is obtained by extracting carbon dioxide from theatmosphere.

2047 Hong Kong celebrates its 50th year as an SAR by completely eliminatingborder controls and barriers between itself and the rest of China.

2050 "Escape from Utopia." Bored by life in this peaceful and unexcitingera, millions decided to use cryonic suspension to emigrate into the futurein search of adventure. Vast "hibernacula" are established in the Antarcticand in the regions of perpetual night at the lunar poles.

2051 Ground is broken on the moon for self-sustaining, robotized colonies,where the elderly will survive longer, thanks to the low lunar gravity.

2057 October 4. Centennial of Sputnik 1. The dawn of the space age iscelebrated by humans not only on Earth, but on the Moon, Mars, Europa,Ganymede and Titan - and in orbit round Venus, Neptune and Pluto.

2061 The return of Halley's Comet; first landing on nucleus by humans. Thesensational discovery of both dormant and active lifeforms vindicates Hoyleand Wickramasinghe's century-old hypothesis that life is omnipresentthroughout space.

2090 Large-scale burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace the carbondioxide "mined" from the air and postpone the next Ice Age by promotingglobal warming.

2095 The development of a true "space drive" - a propulsion system reactingagainst the structure of space time - makes the rocket obsolete and permitsvelocities close to that of light. The first human explorers set off tonearby star systems that robot probes have already found promising.

On a recent research trip to Dayton, Ohio, Wendy Connors and Mike Hall recovered some new information that directly impacts the historical record of Ufology. This information comes from a very knowledgable and inside source to the inner workings of Project's SIGN, Grudge and Blue Book. This source desires to remain unnamed at this point in time and both Mike and I will certainly honor his desires. No discussion as to who the source might be will be entertained by us. This source did, however, work directly with the people comprising SIGN, Grudge and Blue Book for many years and was not only friends, but part of a good old boy's network within T-2.

The following information is shared with all of our fellow researchers:

Prior to 1947, in the fall and winter months of 1946, not only was the Navy deeply investigating the Ghost Rocket phenomena in the Baltic, but many sightings of disc-like craft were being reported by military pilots at this same time. Some sightings were in the Pacific areas as well as over the United States. Many of these cases are still unknown to the ufological community.

In late 1946, Colonel Howard McCoy, Colonel Miles Goll and two other officers within T-2 Intelligence set up a Top Secret office away from T-2 proper to begin looking into the flying discs being reported. At this time such an investigation was beyond the scope of T-2 and no authorization had been given for such an investigation. Although the office was used as a base of operations for analysis of these military sightings, it was not official, nor had Air Force Intelligence (A2 or AFOIN) sanction to do so.

By the time of the Kenneth Arnold and other early 1947 cases, A2 decided to begin investigation of the flying discs. Word was passed down through Gen. Carl T. Spaatz that AFOIN should begin looking into the situation. Word had leaked out to Gen. George McDonald that several officers at T-2 had already begun looking into some of the reports. In order to prevent the upper eschelons from learning that this unofficial investigation had already begun over seven months earlier, and time and money had been used, a paper trail was needed to cover the fact that this unauthorized investigation had begun without approval. This was accomplished quickly by T-2 sending requests to AFOIN (A2) for all prior reports of disc sightings by the military as well as the Ghost Rocket investigations that had been in progress for almost a year.

In order to further cover and make the previous unauthorized investigations legitimate, Gen. Nathan Twining complied with an emergency request from Gen. McDonald, through Gen. Schulgen that an opinion be written regarding the flying discs. This was unique, because at the time of the Twining Memo, T-2 was not answerable to AMC. T-2 was solely stationed at Wright Field due to the fact that much of the support elements T-2 needed were all ready in place at Dayton. After June 14, 1947, T-2 was only an administrative area for AMC. The officers comprising T-2 answered only to A2 (AFOIN) and not through the chain of command at AMC. The Twining memo was definitely for real, but it was produced under different circumstances than was previously believed.

Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, in his book, "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects" had stated that although the investigations of flying discs had begun by August 1947, it was not an official investigation. This new information validates Ruppelt, but Ruppelt was not privy to the fact that the flying disc investigations began almost 10 months earlier. There has always been a question about Ruppelt's acumen regarding the beginning point of the flying disc investigation and now it seems imperative that Ruppelt's work be more closely examined and analyized. Fran Ridge is already hard at work regarding this aspect.

This new information has caused much excitement between Mike and myself. We have enough documentation gathered to show that this new information is valid and will be shared in its entirety in the coming months. However, our research is still on-going and other important elements regarding the early investigations and people involved have been recovered and continuing to be recovered. This information will also be passed on to the list members at the appropriate time. We are still evaluating all the new information.

One further note to share with interested list members. Our source was an extremely close friend and associate with Col. Harold Watson. He confirms that Col. Watson was still heading ATIC during October, 1951 and Col. Dunn was working closely with Col. Watson.

Both Mike and I hope this new information will be of benefit to our fellow researchers.

Wendy Connors and Michael HallProject SIGN and Project Blue Book Research Centerswww.projectsign.com

==+++===+++===+++===+++===+++===+++===+++===+++===+++==8/7/99 - French UFO Report, COMETAHello to all List members

Here is my summary of the French COMETA report, free forcopy and publishing, provided its contents are respected.

Best regards,Gildas Bourdais

The French Report on UFOs and Defence: a short presentation by Gildas Bourdais

It must be stressed here that this is an independant report, written by a private association called COMETA. It is summarized here with the approval of the authors.

To translate and publish the report itself, in part or in its integrality, permission should be asked by writing to the administrator of the association COMETA, Mr Michel Algrin, 25, boulevard Saint-Germain, 75005 Paris, France.

On Friday 16 of July 1999 was published in France an outstanding document, called "UFOs and Defence. What must we be prepared for ?" ("Les OVNI et la Défense. A quoi doit-on se préparer?") This ninety pages report is the result of an in depth study of UFOs, covering many aspects of the subject, especially questions of defence.

The study was carried out during several years by an independant group of former "auditors" at the very serious Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence, or IHEDN ("Institut des hautes études de défense nationale"), and of qualified experts from various fields. Before its public release, it has been sent to French President of the Republic Jacques Chirac, and to Prime minister Lionel Jospin.

This Report is prefaced by General Bernard Norlain, of the Air Force, former Director of IHEDN, and it begins with a preamble by André Lebeau, former President of the National Center for Space Studies ("Centre national d'études spatiales", CNES),the French equivalent of NASA.

The group itself, collective author of the report, is an association of experts, many of whom are or have been auditors of IHEDN, and it is presided over by General Denis Letty, of the Air Force, former auditor(FA) of IHEDN. Its name "COMETA" stands for "Committee for in depth studies".

A non exhaustive list of members is given at the beginning, and it is impressive enough. It includes:

General Bruno Lemoine, of the Air Force (FA of IHEDN), Admiral Marc Merlo (FA of IHEDN). Michel Algrin, Doctor in Political Sciences, attorney at law (FA of IHEDN), General Pierre Bescond, engineer for armaments (FA of IHEDN), Denis Blancher, Chief National Police superintendant at the Ministry ot the Interior, Christian Marchal, chief engineer of the national "corps des Mines", Research Director at the "National Office of Aeronautical Research" (ONERA), General Alain Orszag, Phd in physics, engineer for armaments.

The committee also expresses its gratitude to outside contributors, among whom:

Jean-Jacques Vélasco, head of SEPRA at CNES, François Louange, President of Fleximage, specialist of photo analysis, General Joseph Domange, of the Air Force, general delegate of the Association of auditors at IHEDN.

General Norlain tells in a short preface how this committee was created. General Letty came to see him in March 1995, when he was Director of IHEDN, to discuss his project of committee on UFOs. Norlain assured him of his interest and addressed him to the Association of Auditors (AA) of IHEDN, which in turn gave him its support.

It is interesting to recall here that, twenty years ago, it was a report of that same Association which led to the creation of GEPAN, the first unit for UFO study, at CNES.

As a result, several members of the committee come from the Association of Auditors of IHEDN,joined by other experts. Most of them hold, or have held, important functions in defence, industry, teaching, research,or various central administrations. General Norlain expresses hope that this report will help develop new efforts nationally, and an indispensable international cooperation.

General Letty, as president of COMETA, points to the main theme of the report, which is that the accumulation of well documented observations compells us now to consider all hypotheses as to the origin of UFOs, especially extraterrestrial hypotheses.

The committee then presents the contents of the study: In a first part, presentation of some remarkable cases, both French and foreign; In a second part, they describe the present organization of research in France and abroad, and studies made by scientists worldwide which may bring partial explanations, in accordance with known laws of physics. The main global explanations are then reviewed, from secret crafts to extraterrestrial manifestations; In a third part, will be examined measures to be taken regarding defence, from information of pilots, both civilian and military, to strategic, political and religious consequences, should the extraterrestrial hypothesis be confirmed.

Part I: "Facts and Testimonies"

Many of the cases selected are well known by most researchers, and need only to be mentioned here. They are:

-Observations from the ground. Tananarive (1954); observation of a saucer near the ground by a French pilot, J.-P. Fartek (1979); observation at close range over a Russian missile site, by several witnesses (1989).

Although the selection is limited, it seems to be sufficient to convince an uninformed but open minded reader of the reality of UFOs.

Part II: "The Present State of Knowledge"

The second part, entitled "the present state of knowledge" ("Le point des connaissances"), begins with a survey of the organization of the official UFO research in France, from the first intructions given to the "gendarmerie" in 1974 for the redaction of reports, to the creation of GEPAN in 1977, its organization and its results: collection of more than 3,000 reports from the gendarmerie, cases studies, statistical analyses. It then surveys agreements passed by GEPAN and, later, SEPRA, with the air force and the army, the civilian aviation and other organs, such as civilian and military laboratories for the analysis of samples, and photographies.

Regarding the methods and results, we are reminded of some famous cases (Trans-en-Provence, l'Amarante), and emphasis is made on the the catalogues of cases, notably of pilots (Weinstein catalogue), and "radar/visual", world wide. A historical note appears here with a quotation of the famous letter of General Twining, of september 1947, asserting already to the reality of UFOs.

The following chapter, called "hypotheses and attempts at modeling" ("OVNI: hypothèses,essais de modélisation") discusses some models and hypotheses which are under study in several countries.

Partial simulations have already been made for UFO propulsion, based on observations of aspects such as: speed, movements and accelerations, engine failure of nearby vehicles, paralysis of witnesses.

One model is MHD propulsion, already tested successfully in water, and wich might be achieved in the atmosphere with superconducting circuits, in a few decades. Other studies are briefly mentioned, regarding both atmospheric and space propulsion, such as particle beams, antigravity, reliance on planetary and stellar impulsion.

The failure of land vehicle engines may be explained by microwave radiations. In fact, high power hyperfrequency generators are under study in France and other countries. One application is micro wave weapons. Particle beams, for instance proton beams, which ionize the air and become therefore visible, might explain the observation of truncated luminous beams. Micro waves might explain body paralysis.

In the same chapter are next studied "global hypotheses". Hoaxes are rare and easily detected. Some non-scientific are put aside, such as conspiration and manipulation by very secret, powerful groups, parapsychic phenomena, collective hallucinations. The hypothesis of secret weapons is also regarded as very improbable, the same as "intoxication" at the time of the cold war, or just natural phenomena.

We are then left with various extraterestrial hypotheses. One version has been developed in France by astronomers Jean-Claude Ribes and Guy Monnet, based on the concept of "space islands" of American physicist O'Neill, and it is compatible with present day physics.

The organization of UFO research in the United States, Great Britain and Russia, is surveyed rapidly.

In the United States, the media and the polls show a marked interest and concern of the public, but the official position, especially of the Air Force, is still one of denial, more precisely that there is no threat to national security. Actually, declassified documents, released under FOIA, show another story, one of surveillance of nuclear installations by UFOs, and the continued study of UFOs by the military and intelligence agencies.

The report stresses the importance, in the United States, of private, independant associations. It mentions the "Briefing Document. Best available evidence" sent in 1995 to a thousand personalities worldwide, and the Sturrock workshop in 1997, both sponsored by Laurance Rockefeller. The "Briefing Document" has obviously been welcomed by the authors of the COMETA report. The committee also notes the public emergence of alleged insiders such as Colonel Philip Corso, and considers that his testimony may be partly significant as to the real situation in that country, in spite of many critics.

The report describes briefly the situation in Great Britain, with a special mention for Nick Pope, and poses the question of the possible existence of secret studies pursued jointly with American services. It mentions as well research in Russia, and the release of some information, notably by the KGB in 1991.

Part III: UFOs and Defence

The third part, "UFOs and Defence" ("Les OVNI et la défense"), states that, if it is true that no hostile action has been proved yet, at least some actions of "intimidation" have been recorded in France (case of of the Mirage IV for instance). Since the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs cannot be ruled out, it is therefore necessary to study the consequences of that hypothesis at the strategic level, but also political, religious and media/public information levels.

The first chapter ofPart III is devoted to prospective strategies ("Prospectives stratégiques") and it begins with fundamental questions: "What if extraterrestrials? What intentions and what strategy can we deduce from their behavior ?"

Such questions open a more controversial part of the report. Possible motivations of extraterrestrial visitors are explored here, such as protection of planet Earth against the dangers of nuclear war, suggested for instance by repeated flying over nuclear missile sites.

The committee then ponders the possible repercussion on the behavior, official or not, of different states, and focuses on the possibility of secret, privileged contacts which might be "attributed to the United States". The attitude of the U.S. is seen as "most strange" since the 1947 wave and the Roswell event. Since that time, a policy of increasing secrecy seems to have been applied, which might be explained by the protection at all cost of military technological superiority to be acquired from the study of UFOs.

Next, the report tackles the question: "What measures must wetake now?" At the least, whatever the nature of UFOs, they impose "critical vigilance", in particular regarding the risk of "destabilizing manipulations". A kind of "cosmic vigilance" should be applied by the elites, nationally and internationally,in order to prevent any shocking surprise, erroneous interpretation and hostile manipulation.

Nationally, COMETA urges the strenghening of SEPRA, and recommends the creation of a cell at the highest level of government, entrusted with the development of hypotheses, strategy, and preparation of cooperation agreements with European and other foreign countries. A further step would be that European states and the European Union undertake diplomatic action toward the Unites States within the framework of political and strategic alliances.

A key question of the report is "What situations must we be prepared for?". It mentions such situations as: extraterrestrial move for official contact; discovery of a UFO/alien base on the territory or in Europe; invasion (deemed improbable) and localised or massive attack; manipulation or deliberate disinformation aiming at destabilizing other states.

COMETA devotes special attention to "aeronautical implications", with detailed recommendations aimed at various personnels, such as air staffs, controllers, weathermen and engineers. It also makes recommendations at the scientific and technical levels, aimed at developping research, with potential benefits for defence and industry.

The report further explores the political and religious implications of UFOs, using as a model the perspective of our own exploration of space: how would we do it, how would we handle contacts with less advanced civilizations?

Such an approach is not new to the well informed readers of the abundant ufological literature, but it has a special value here, being treated seriously at such a level. The media/publicity implications are not forgotten, with the problems of disinformation, fear of ridicule, and manipulation by certain groups.

In its conclusion, COMETA claims that the physical reality of UFOs, under control of intelligent beings, is "quasi certain". Only one hypothesis takes into account the available data: the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitors. This hypothesis is of course unproved, but has far-reaching consequences. The goals of these alleged visitors remain unknown but must be the subject of speculations and prospective scenarios.

In its final recommendations, it stresses again the need to:

1) inform all decision-makers and persons in position of responsibility;

2) reinforce means of investigation and study at SEPRA;

3) have UFO detection taken into account by agencies engaged in of space surveillance;

4) create a strategic cell at the highest state level;

5) undertake diplomatic action toward the Unites States for cooperation on this "capital question";

6) study measures which might be necessary in case of emergencies.

Finally, this document is accompanied by seven interesting annexes which are worth reading even by seasoned ufologists:

-1 Radar detection in France

-2 Observations by astronomers

-3 Life in the Universe

-4 Colonization of space

-5 The Roswell case - The disinformation (an interesting text which will be criticized by some readers, and welcomed by others, including myself)

-6 Antiquity of the UFO phenomenon. Elements for a chronology.

-7 Reflexionn on various psychological, sociological and political aspects ot the UFO phenomenon.

The importance of this report should not be missed by all informed ufologists around the world, considering not only its contents but the personality of its authors, and in spite of critics which may be addressed to it.

In fact, some sharp critics have been made soon after the release of the report, on the Internet, and in the French press with an article by sociologist Pierre Lagrange curiously denouncing an operation of disinformation by way of ridiculing the subject ("Libération of July 21, 1999). Let's hope that the present summary will help clarify the debate.

By most accounts, recent months have seen a slow-down in UFO reports around the world. Assuming this is true, it is no cause for surprise. UFO reports have come in waves since civilian reporting became common in the late 1940s. If the pattern of five previous decades holds, there will be a renewed surge of UFO activity in the fairly near future.

Meanwhile, UFO research and controversy continue unabated. Though new cases still occur on a regular basis, much current research is focused on historical review of prominent cases or related documents.

For people not acquainted with the history of UFO research, it might seem that UFO claims are built mostly upon flimsy, data-poor cases, unreliable witnesses or bad investigation. While it is true that the majority of reported UFO sightings are so-called "lights in the sky," offering little that can be studied after the fact, the bedrock of the UFO controversy is a constellation of cases that are rich in data, supported by credible testimony, often accompanied by physical evidence including radar returns, photos and ground traces, and seem inexplicable in terms of known events or phenomena.

The fact that UFO claims are grounded in substantial data and serious research is the primary reason that headway has been made against decades of mainstream ignorance, indifference, denial and debunkery. It is the reason, in the view of CNI News, that progress is actually accelerating today -- the reason more and more thinking people, including scientists and members of the mainstream press, are recognizing the validity and importance of UFO phenomena.

The Roswell incident of 1947 epitomizes the ongoing pursuit of historical UFO events. As reported many times in past issues of CNI News, a number of researchers continue to uncover new leads and new witnesses. Despite four separate attempts by the U.S. Air Force and innumerable attempts by debunkers and skeptical UFO researchers alike to dismiss the Roswell case, it remains as unresolved and rich in possibilities today as it has ever been.

But the Roswell incident -- whatever it was -- occurred in a year that saw an explosion of other well-attested UFO events as well. Researcher Jan Aldrich and others are focussing attention on the period of the late 1940s, attempting to understand why those particular years saw such an astonishing concentration of significant UFO events, especially in the United States. Like Roswell, many UFO events of the late 1940s involved military personnel, and many others involved civilian airline pilots.

A UFO incident sometimes called the British Roswell occurred in late December, 1980, over the twin air bases RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, and the Rendlesham Forest separating them. Like Roswell, this case remains the focus of ongoing investigation almost 20 years after the fact. As reported in the April 16, 1999 edition of CNI News, British researcher James Easton recently located a new witness to the Bentwaters/Woodbridge UFO incident who confirms many details also attested by other credible witnesses, and adds a startling new detail: he says he clearly viewed three triangular UFOs through binoculars from a watchtower on the base. Like Roswell, this case remains a provocative mystery.

Similarly provocative is a case that occurred on January 20, 1996 in the southern Brazilian city of Varginha. Brazilian ufologists have reconstructed an astonishing series of events involving the sighting and capture of several bizarre creatures, apparently unlike any known species on Earth. It is possible, though not certain, that these strange humanoid creatures were connected to UFO sightings in the area. Better supported by multiple witnesses is the allegation that at least one creature was taken by police or military authorities to a hospital, where it was examined and probably died. One police officer involved in this case is known to have died shortly after exposure to one of the creatures, but his family was unable to learn the cause of his death.

Lead civilian investigator of the Varginha case is Vitorio Pacaccini, who has personally interviewed dozens of witnesses and tracked down several "reluctant" witnesses who may have important evidence in the case. What is clear, Pacaccini says, is that these reluctant witnesses -- who were evidently involved in the original investigation -- are now very afraid.

Another important aspect of the ongoing UFO controversy is the investigation of alleged official documents. As previously reported in CNI News (most recently on April 1, 1999), a group of documents alleged to originate from a super-secret organization called Majestic 12 (MJ-12) has aroused heated debate among leading researchers. If these documents could be proven authentic, they would establish the existence of a long-running official project to investigate extraterrestrial activities on Earth. But their authenticity is doubted by many.

The first of these documents, called the Eisenhower Briefing Document (EBD), became public in 1987 and has been controversial ever since. Leading Roswell expert Stanton Friedman has strongly argued for its authenticity. Other leading ufologists, notably Kevin Randle, have argued against it.

Since the mid-1990s, more than a dozen other alleged MJ-12 documents have come to light. The largest of these, called the Special Operations Manual 1-01 (SOM 1-01), was sent as undeveloped film to researcher Don Berliner, who passed it to several other researchers for investigation. Berliner now says he considers SOM 1-01 to be fake, and he is joined in this opinion by other well-known researchers including Jan Aldrich, Mark Rodeghier, Tom Deuley and Richard Hall. But Stanton Friedman, along with investigators Robert and Ryan Wood, says SOM 1-01 is very likely authentic. So too, according to Ryan Wood, does a document specialist affiliated with the U.S. intelligence community, who has been anonymously assisting the Woods in their research. But this same intelligence expert says the Eisenhower Briefing Document is disinformation.

The controversy over these documents exemplifies a troubling theme of contemporary ufology. There have been a number of sensational disclosures in recent years that, if true, would be Earth-shattering in their implications. For that reason, these cases have drawn enormous attention and consumed inordinate amounts of ufology's limited resources. High on the list of these grand but dubious cases is the infamous Santilli "alien autopsy" film -- now judged by most researchers (but not all) to be a clever hoax. More recently, a similar controversy broke out over a video from Mexico City showing a classic flying saucer in broad daylight. In this case, lead researcher Jaime Maussan says ground witnesses positively affirm that the sighting was real. But expert video analysts -- notably MUFON's Jeff Sainio -- say the footage is fake.

Lamentably, UFO hoaxes seem to be more numerous today than ever before. Some of the most glaring infractions have been perpetrated by mainstream television producers.

In January 1998, the UPN network aired "Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County," purporting to show the terrifying abduction of a Minnesota family allegedly caught on home video. Though many viewers easily recognized the video as a hoax (credits at the end gave it away, if nothing else), countless other people mistook the show for a genuine documentary. Nowhere in the program did UPN directly admit to a hoax or spoof; nor did the network respond to a huge outcry of public indignation after the show aired.

Similarly troubling was a TNT network program in September 1998 titled "The Secret KGB UFO Files." The centerpiece of this show was alleged official Soviet footage of a UFO crash recovery and a related alien autopsy. Much evidence was presented to support the general impression that these events were real. It later came to light that the UFO crash and autopsy footage were almost certainly hoaxed. It is not clear that TNT executives knew this when the show aired; but the independent producers of the special probably did.

Despite the proliferation of hoaxes, profoundly impressive UFO cases continue to emerge as well. Some -- like the Sao Paulo "orb" case reviewed in CNI News on May 1, 1999 -- are based on reliable video footage and supported by numerous witnesses. Another important recent case was an all-night police chase of UFOs in northeast Ohio, documented on 911 dispatch audiotape (see CNI News of June 16, 1998). And cases involving large, silent-running triangular UFOs are becoming almost too numerous to mention. Last August, for example, a series of triangle UFO sightings in northern France was attested by hundreds of eyewitnesses and brought to mind a similar sensational sequence of events over Belgium in 1989-90 (see CNI News, Aug 16 and Sep 1, 1998).

Though mainstream media have treated UFOs poorly for decades, CNI News observes a gradual positive shift. Recent television programs -- for example, a week-long series of UFO documentaries aired on the Learning Channel (TLC) in late February, 1999, and the NBC prime-time special "Confirmation" in the same month -- have been uneven in quality but relatively earnest and supportive in tone. The same trend can be seen in print. For example, the staid "Readers Digest" is running a well-researched, no-nonsense UFO article in its current edition. The author of this piece even brings to light a hitherto obscure case from Florida, involving a policeman's encounter with a UFO (see part 1 of this CNI News).

Certainly adding to the potential credibility of UFO claims is the growing recognition in scientific circles of two important ideas: first, that extraterrestrial life is likely to exist, and second, that humans are becoming capable of many technological feats attributed to UFOs.

Any day now, if SETI astronomers get their wish, the people of Earth will hear direct evidence of another intelligent civilization in space. While many researchers both inside and outside the UFO community think SETI is on the wrong track, there is no denying that fact that a majority of mainstream scientists now openly believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life. The pursuit of life on other worlds has begun in earnest. Numerous projects within NASA as well as space agencies of Europe, Japan and elswehere are specifically aimed at exploring for life within our own solar system. It is widely expected that evidence of some kind of life -- probably microbial, possibly fossil -- will be found on Mars within the next one or two decades. Equally promising is the prospect of life in the presumed salt-water ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa.

Once the idea of ET life is accepted, the logical leap to UFOs as someone else's spacecraft involves a technological assessment. Foolishly or not, humans tend to judge what can be done by what humans can do. When humans could not fly, flight was presumed impossible. Now, humans realize that sending spacecraft into interstellar space is possible, because humans have done it. It remains a matter of great controversy whether humans will find a practical means to travel to other star systems, but that idea is no longer considered taboo. It is the subject of active research by a growing number of scientists, some working for NASA or the U.S. military, others at major universities in the U.S. and abroad.

These scientists are exploring a wide range of ways to propel a spacecraft to another star. Among the more exotic ideas are theoretical embodiments of "warp drive" -- faster-than-light propulsion. Not many years ago, the very idea was regarded as an inadmissible violation of Einstein's relativity theory -- as if Einstein had written the laws of reality. Now, at least some reputable physicists are convinced that "breaking the light-speed limit" is at least permissible, even if technically improbable.

Meanwhile, other approaches to star travel seem more feasible, if a great deal slower. It has been proposed that Earth's emissaries to the stars might be semi-autonomous machines, which can neither die nor grow suicidally bored during the century or more that must elapse before reaching another star. But it is also possible, some theorists say, that humans will make such journeys when propulsion systems are developed that can gradually accelerate to a large fraction of light-speed -- a much more acceptable idea than "warp drive."

In any star-travel scheme, energy is the primary issue. Whether traveling fast or slow, almost unimaginable amounts of energy are needed to reach even our nearest stellar neighbor, let alone more interesting destinations 10 or 20 light years away. But that energy -- however much is needed -- is available in the very fabric of space itself, if only it can be tapped. So called zero-point energy may indeed be the Holy Grail of the coming Space Age.

Thoughts like these, entertained by some of the world's foremost thinkers, have as one result the gradual chipping away of resistance to the idea that visitors from elsewhere are possible. If we can do it -- or think we might -- it seems only logical that some more advanced race may have done it already.

That said, most UFO researchers hasten to add that the presumption of alien visitation is only one interpretation of the available evidence. UFOs are unidentified flying objects, not alien spacecraft. But at the end of the day, those same researchers, along with countless "experiencers" of the phenomena, will admit that some fraction of UFO cases seem best explained as incursions of non-human technology. Where such technology originates is simply unknown. Acclaimed researcher Jacques Vallee, for example, disdains the notion of extraterrestials, arguing that UFOs are stranger than that and may represent trans-dimensional visitation of some kind. Other researchers suggest time-traveling entities, perhaps Earthlings from the future. Still others regard UFO phenomena as physical manifestations of psychical events.

Amid the cacophony of competing theories, however, the so-called extraterrestrial hypothesis remains the most widely accepted, and it has never made more sense than it does today. According to this theory, some fraction of UFOs represent technology originating on another planet around another star. And inside those technical devices -- at least sometimes -- are presumed to be living intelligent beings. Extraterrestrials. Aliens.

Are "they" really here? If the answer were proven to be Yes, the humans of Earth would be forced into a new paradigm of awareness and possibility -- and perhaps perceived danger -- light-years beyond the simple assertion "We are not alone." If "they" are here, then direct interaction with "them" is available now, perhaps happening now. "They" could change our understanding of reality almost too quickly for most of us to tolerate, much less enjoy. And that very idea is often put forward as the reason we don't already know "they" are here. In the more benign version of this theory, "they" are protecting us from such disruptive awareness. In the more widely believed version, "the government" -- or some ultra-secret faction thereof -- is hiding this potentially catastrophic truth from the people.

Are "they" really here? Certainly a great many "experiencers" are sure of it. Famed abductee Travis Walton, for example, remains convinced after nearly 25 years that he saw aliens during his 1975 experience aboard a UFO. No amount of public doubt or derision can persuade him to change his story. Similarly, policeman Lonnie Zamora remains convinced that he saw two "little men" get into a landed UFO and fly away in broad daylight near Socorro, New Mexico, in 1964. Zamoro and Walton are just two of countless credible witnesses who attest to apparently humanoid visitors in UFOs.

Can it be true? And if so, could it be kept secret? Those are the two driving questions in the endless controversy concerning the "UFO cover-up." Famed UFO researcher Stanton Friedman epitomizes those who insist that the answer to both questions is definitely yes. Others aren't so sure -- but more are joining Friedman's ranks every day. One example is lunar astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who has become a vocal supporter of UFO claims and a strident critic of official UFO secrecy.

The movement to "uncover the cover-up" is gaining force. Physician Steven Greer, founding director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) has been a leader in pushing for government disclosure of UFO evidence. Operation Right to Know has organized demonstrations in Washington, DC and other cities, calling for official disclosure. Attorney Peter Gersten of CAUS (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) has filed a number of lawsuits attempting to force official disclosure. One suit seeks information relating to claims made by the late Col. Philip Corso in his 1997 book "The Day After Roswell." More recently, UFO activist Larry Bryant, backed by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), has launched a nationwide UFO Ballot Initiative, seeking to create a referendum on UFO secrecy during the year 2000 elections.

As with everything else about UFOs, these efforts to "bust the cover-up" are hugely controversial even among ufologists. Stanton Friedman, who for years has derided the cover-up as a "Cosmic Watergate," nonetheless argues that official UFO secrecy may have been the right thing, given its potentially huge social implications. Though Friedman would prefer disclosure of some aspects of the UFO situation, he says that some secrets are worth keeping even now. Referring to possible technical marvels revealed in UFO wreckage, Friedman says, "You can't tell your friends without telling your enemies." Where national security or public welfare is legitimately at stake, he says, the secrets should remain in place. And many others agree.

Thus, the forces acting upon the UFO controversy are complex and contradictory. But there is simply no rational argument against the basic premise that UFO evidence is sufficient to justify a serious scientific investigation. That was more-or-less the opinion expressed by an international scientific panel convened by the Society for Scientific Exploration in October, 1997, to examine the merits of UFO claims. That panel fell well-short of endorsing UFOs as someone else's technology, but they did recognize that some UFO cases were at least scientifically puzzling and perhaps indicative of hitherto unknown forces or events. Even so, this most basic fact about UFOs has yet to be widely accepted by mainstream science.

But progress continues, nonetheless. Cases keep emerging, better research is accomplished, mainstream media warm to the subject, and credible witnesses who once feared exposure now risk telling all. It is also significant that, every now and then, a person of great wealth elects to put serious money into UFO related research. One such person is billionaire philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller. Another is billionaire developer Robert Bigelow. And most recently, millionaire entrepreneur Joseph Firmage has stepped boldly into the fray. Firmage appears to have willingly sacrificed his standing among fellow titans of Silicon Valley in order to pursue his vision, not only of extraterrestrial contact, but of human social transformation as well (see part 2 of this CNI News).

To the skeptical observer, it may seem that the UFO controversy persists unchanged year after year, kept in place mainly by blind believers, fools and charlatans. Nothing could be further from the truth. The controversy persists because it is focused upon real events and phenomena that could topple many long-cherished ideas of reality. It persists against the dogmatic resistance of debunkers, the intolerance of science and the ignorance of mainstream culture because a relatively small number of first-rate researchers, working patiently over years and decades with extremely limited support, have built an edifice of evidence that even skeptical science today cannot entirely ignore. It persists because humans are gradually affirming the fundamental premises upon which UFO claims are based: that extraterrestrial life does exist, and that technology once thought impossible is possible after all.

In this light, it makes sense to expect that order and greater understanding will come out of the UFO controversy in time. It will not resolve to nothing, as skeptics have long predicted. On the contrary, it will finally resolve to a new, startling, perhaps transformative understanding of life and reality -- one so astonishing in its implications that it may be regarded, in some distant future, as the greatest discovery in human history.

The International Space Sciences Organization is scheduled to formallylaunch its operations in May, 1999. As part of this launch, a completely newweb site will be opened at www.TheISSO.org. The new web site (free and opento the public) will demonstrate the full breadth of initiatives ISSO hasplanned and underway, including:

1 - A structured and organized publishing system for a new initiative called"The Truth Files" -- a new public library of cutting edge rigorous research,analysis, and speculation on extraterrestrial life, space exploration, UFOphenomena, and advanced consciousness studies, from historical, scientific,and theological perspectives.

2 - A comprehensive link and book reference library, and an organizedreal-time threaded discussion system spanning the same subjects.

3 - An integrated radio broadcast schedule for "The Truth Files",coordinated to run regularly both directly on the Internet and, within atime slot of Jeff Rense's Sightings show dedicated to The Truth Files, onsyndicated national radio. Each program in the series will feature invitedguests representing the best of the best researchers in pursuit of the truthat the cutting edge of thought. A wide range of diverse but well-groundedopinions will be welcome, but only the most rigorously argued will be put onair.

4 - Information about the summertime launch of a worldwide event tourfeaturing a film produced by ISSO.

5 - A volunteer membership system which will begin to organize people aroundthe world who share the common desire to build a brighter future forhumanity and who have resources or talents to contribute to a betterunderstanding of the subjects studied at ISSO.

With this message we are opening our first semi-annual Invitation for Papersfor the "The Truth Files". We invite submissions from serious researchers ofcutting-edge discoveries relevant to history, new principles in science,concepts of spirituality, and unusual phenomena in evidence.

The specifications for submissions are:

- Provide a one line title- Include an abstract of up to 100 words- Please try to limit to less than 100 pages in length- Format your work as an Adobe Acrobat file- The copyright remains with the author, though permission is granted toISSO post in "The Truth Files" library- Submissions can be e-mailed to thekairos@yahoo.com- Include contact information for follow-up

Evaluated by a review process conducted through a board of advisers, the top10 papers will be featured as part of "The Truth Files", and each authorwill be invited to address the public through a dedicated 3-hour ISSO radiobroadcast on the Internet and air waves. Each of these authors will alsoreceive a $1,000 honorarium from ISSO. ISSO will award the authors of thetop five papers an additional $5,000 each to be used to advance theirdomains of research as they see fit. I consider this amount of moneysymbolic of the importance, and not sufficient to be compensatory, of agenuine attempt to communicate important knowledge to human beings aroundthe world.

The deadline for the first round of papers is May 1, 1999, and awards willbe announced on July 1, 1999. Each six months, this invitation will bereissued, reviews conducted, papers posted, and awards granted.

Whatever your views may be, and regardless of whether you agree with me, Irespect you as equals, and I ask only truth. I hope you will join me insupporting a new and genuine effort to promote a deeper understanding of theremarkable times in which we live.

Think you've got a hunk of a flying saucer? Well, it could be worth a milliondollars to you. According to information just received from Rob McConnell,host of the "X-Zone" radio show , Henry DeCienzo, owner of the Flying SaucerRestaurant in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada is offering a reward of onemillions dollars to anyone who can supply a flying saucer or pieces of one.Submitted materials will be subjected to rigorous laboratory testing.

Back in the Sixties, NATO issued a classified report statingthat UFOs were real, of extraterrestrial origin, and hadvisited the earth. This extraordinary report was said to comeout of NATO's command center the Supreme Headquarters AlliedPowers, Europe (SHAPE), located then just outside of Paris, France.

Background: Dean, a highly decorated veteran, served on thefront lines in both Korea and Viet Nam. In 1963, whileassigned to the Supreme Headquarters Operataions Center (SHOC),SHPAE's war room, headed up by then supreme allied commander ofEurope, General Lyman Lemnitzer, Dean claims he was able toread the detailed 12 inch thick NATO reports on UFOs.

The Story: "SHAPE was one of those choice assignments. You hadto have a spotless record and pass security background checks.I applied on a whim and got it. I was very proud and please.At SHAPE, I was put through more security checks, given aCOSMIC TOP SECRET (yes this is a real term) clearance, thehighest NATO has, and assined to the SHOC (the NATO war room).In those days, the activity would run hot and cold and much ofit would depend on how the Soviets wanted to play it. The mostintriguing thing to me was that we were continually having aproblem with large, metallic, circular objects that wouldappear over central Europe; these were reported as visualphenomena by our pilots and appeared on radar as well. Someflew in formation, and most of the time we spotted them comingout of the Soviet Union, over East Germany, West Germany,France, and then they would often circle somewhere over theEnglish Channel and head north, disappearing from NATO radarover the Norwegian Sea. These objects were very large, movingvery fast, at very high altitudes--higher than we could reachat the time--and they seemed obviously under intellient control.

I was told this had been going on for some time and that inFebruary 1961 there had been quite a scare. Fifty of theseobjects were spotted on radar and headed in formation from theSoviet Union toward Europe, flying at about 100,000 feet. TheSoviets had closed all borders. Everybody went to red alert.All hell broke loose. We really thought the War had started.We scrambled. We knew the Russians were scrambling. It was the largest number of these objects that had been seen. Fortunately--and only by the grace of God--we didn't start bombing and neither did the Russians. In nine minutes they were gone.

I was told that then Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Europe,Sir Thomas Pike, had been repeatedly requesting informationfrom London and Washington about these objects, but nothingwoold ever come. We found out later that the Columbine-Topazspy ring in Paris was intercepting everything and forwarding itto the KGB, which often got intelligence information evenbefore we did. So Pike decided, I was told, to develop an inhouse study to determine whether these objects were a military threat.

In the meantime, the UFO matter literally brought about theestablishment of direct communication between the East and Westin 1962, which I have always found interesting and ironic. Wehad pretty well determined by that time that these were not Russian craft, and the Russians had determined they were not ours. So, we came to anunderstanding, and a direct telephone line was opened between SHOC and the Warsaw Pact Headquarters Command. Of course, a setup was always a possibility, so we had backup ways of checking out whether the Russians were being truthful. But since we were both armed to the teethandWWIII was just ticking away, it was a logical step in the right direction.That idea developed into the hotlinebetween the president of the US and the soviet premier, following theCuban Missle Crisis.

Well, by the time I arrived in 1963, everybody had been talkingabout the study and I had heard the rumours, seen the blips onradar, witnessed the commotions and some of us occasionallyeven talked about the possibilities. But nothing reallyprepared me for what I started to read in the early morninghours one night in January 1964.

It was about 2:00 a.m. and a relatively quiet night when theSCHOC controller on duty went into the vault and came out withthis huge document. 'Take a look at this,' he said. The titlewas simply: ASSESSMENT: AN EVALUATION OF A POSSIBLE MILITARYTHREAT TO ALLIED FORCES IN EUROPE. It wasnumbered, #3, stampedCOSMIC TOP SECRET, had eight inches worth of appendices, dozensof photographs and had been signed into the vault by Germancolonel Heinz Berger, SHOC's head of security: I quicklylearned that it was based on two and a half yearsof research, was funded by NATO money, and that only 15 copieswere published -- in English, German, and French. Each one wasnumbered. All were classified and ordered to be kept underlock and key.

Every time I got the chance, from then until I left, I wouldread a section or two in it. It was the most intriguingdocument I'd ever read. It was put together by militaryrepresentatives of every NATO nation and also includedcontributions from some of the greatest scientific minds.These objects were violating all of our known laws of physicsand the study team had gone to Cambridge, Oxfor, the Sorbonne,MIT and other major universities for input on chemistry,physics, atmospheric physics, biology, history, [psychology,and even theology, all of which were separate appendices.

I read about theories on Einstein's sought after unified fieldtheory, the high radiation at various landing sites and UFOreports that dated back to the Roman era and up to our own F105pilots' sightings and encounters, and on and on. I had alwaysbeen a skeptic, but this report, well...it concluded that thisstuff was not science fiction.

I read about contact encounnters. One incident that had justhappened in 1963 involved a landing on a Danish farm.According to the report, the farmer went aboard with the twolittle beings and two more human looking men who spoke to himin Danish. The report included parts of his interrogation bygovernment authorities and their conclusions that he wastelling the truth. In another incident, according to thereports, a craft landed on an Italian airfield and offered totake an Italian sergeant for a ride. He wet his pants--that'swhat it said--and was so scared, he didn't go.

The appendix that really got to me was titled 'Autopsies.' Isaw pictures of a 30 meter disc that had crashed inTimmensdorfer, Germany, near the Baltic Sea in 1961. TheBritish Army, according to the report, got there first and putup a perimeter. The craft had landed in very soft, loamy soilnear the Russian border and so hadn't destructed, but one thirdof it was buried in. We and the Russians who also quicklyshowed up had both tracked it.

Inside there were 12 small bodies. All dead. There werepictures of the bodies, which looked like the beings known asthe 'grays,' being laid out and then put on stretchers andloaded into jeeps, and autopsy photos, too. Some of the littlegrays appeared to not be a reproductive capable species. Theautopsy guys concluded, according to the report, that it lookedas if they had been cut out of a cookie cutter -- clones withno alimentary tract. They did not ingest or process food as weknow it, nor did it appear that they had any system forelimination.

The craft itself was cut up like a pie into six pieces, put onlowboys and hauled off. Scuttlebutt was that it was given tothe Americans and flown to Wright-Patterson Air Force base inOhio. I looked at these picture and couldn't believe it. Myskin got cold and I thought, My God. I had never reallybelieved we were all alone in the universe, but this was hardto swallow.

The major conclusions in the NATO report blew me away. Therewere five:

1) The planet and human race had been the subject of a detailedsurvey of some kind by several different extra terrestrialcivilizations, four of which they had identified visually. Onerace looked almost indistinguishable from us. Anotherresembled humans in height, stature, and structure, but with avery gray, pasty skin tone. The third race is now popularlyknown as the grays and the fourth was described as reptilian,with vertical pupils and lizard like skin.

2) These alien visitations had been going on for a very longtime, at least 200 years--perhaps longer.

3) The extraterrestirials did not appear hostile since if thatwere their intent they would have already demonstrated theirmalevolence.

4) UFO appearances and quick disappearances as well as theflybys were demonstrations conducted on purpose to show us someof their capabilities.

5) a process or program of some sort seemed to be underwaysince flybys progressed to landings and eventually contact. Iwanted so badly to copy this thing. I did take a photographof the cover sheet, which wasn't in and of itself classified.But I didn't want to wind up in Fort Leavenworth. So instead Iwould go to the bathroom and take notes--surreptitiously, very carefully.

I have been through an awful lot in my life, but I've never been ableto just walk away from that report. I know that I'm taking achance by violating my oaths. But this is the most importantissue of our times--so damn important that I can't think ofanything more important, and the public has been deceived and completely kept in the dark about all of this for all these years. It's the biggest scientific political scandal ever.

Besides, what Have I got to lose? I'm 64 years old now. Are they going to bump me off? I have told the truth and my integrity and credibility stand. When is our government going to tell the truth?"

Srtan wrote:I have spent time with Bob and his wife at many conferences. Likable people. Nosubstatiation has ever been provided. Yes there is a Cosmic TP SECRET clearance.But at best in my gray basket. The story has been around for a long while. STF.

7/28/98 Stan Wrote:Bob is more likable, more dynamic, and more vocal besides being a lot younger.He has often presented pictures that I consider frauds. He is almost evangelical in his approach. so his message is more than merely an extaordinary document. Confidentially I was told that (names deleted) were told that his NATO claims didn't check out. Stan ===+++===+++===+++===+++===7/28/98 A reply to a post I made to the Skywatch news list....Dave

I have been following SKYWATCH for a while now, quietly ... I will respondhere to your question because Bob Dean is a friend and someone with whom Ihave spend considerable time in the past couple of years. I have seen himweather great praise and attention ... as well as skepticism and negativepublicity. Both with equanimity.

HIs record is real and speaks for itself. He is always available to speak atconferences and other gatherings (I believe he will be at the upcomingSedona conference). I am sure many of the people who subscribe to thislist have seen Bob speak. If you have questions or comments for him ... he is always willing to talk and answer questions. If you find yourself nearby one of his appearance, it will be an interesting experience for you(or anyone) to stop in and parlay with him.

As far as my impressions ... he is sought after and looked to for authorityand for being straight from groups around the world. For furtherinformation ... check out his web page at: http://www.stargate-intl.com/.

I will close by saying that I have seen him with his peers who are among thetop researchers in the world in the UFO/ET/military field. WIth fewexceptions, he is well loved and respected ... and his information isconstant and ... well ... check out his page, his lectures, his video tapes andCD-ROMS... and judge for yourself.

I know Bob Dean well and I also know Salley Rayl, author of the 1994 OMNIarticle.

His military record is well-documented. No doubt he did serve in the places hesays.

He's been interviewed so many times, it's boring to hear his story again (tome, at least). I did hear it again, for the umpty-ninth time, at Roswellearlier this month. Same story.

As for the "Assessment," that's one of those untouchable documents that, formost of us, exists only in legend. I can't say if it's real or not, and Idon't know anyone who can. Bob insists it is, of course. Is he lying?Delusional? Working for some dark force? Or simply telling it like it is? Whoknows? Not me.

This is the name of a supposed group of "ELITE" people in the "KNOW" aboutUFO's. It's been bantered about on various UFO news lists for years. I typicallysee this once a year where it's represented as some new info about this supersecret group.

I saw it again and was surprised to see a name listed of someone I know andhave the utmost respect for. I decided to ask him about this directly and hisreply follows. But first is a typical definition you may see of what "The Aviary"is supposed to be.

DaveDefinition :

"Since sometime in the 1970's, a small group of individuals with extremelyhigh security clearances, who were working on various aspects of UFOresearch and policy, began to interact unofficially on a regular basis topool information. Their objectives were to coordinate data, see the bigpicture, analyze the meaning of UFOs and extraterrestrial contact withEarth, use this knowledge to gain access to additional information on thehyper secret Majestic-12 (MJ-12, the government's ultimate UFO-informationcontrol and policy group) and gain special influence through theircollective power. This elite group of roughly a dozen individuals working onnational security assignments gave themselves code names, using mostly birdnames. Collectively, they came to be called the "aviary."

The Aviary is a term invented some 15 or more years ago by Bill Moore andJaime Shandara to refer to their two main secret sources of informationwhom they called "Condor and Falcon. Subsequently about 10 years agoother people began to add people to the "aviary" regardless of whether ornot they provided information to Moore. I don't know who Falcon andCondor were/are. There were two men who played the roles of F and C in a TV show called UFO COVER UP-LIVE in October, 1988.

Mr. X, who is one of the real mentally challenged individuals in thisbusiness has merely repeated what is on the web site of one guy who likesto think of himself as the color blue (and has assigned a "heirarchy" toUFO investigators). You can be part of teh aviary if you wish. Justpick a bird name not used yet and spread it around. Pretty soon you willfind your bird name on the list of birdbrains.

Mr. X's description of me is brief but reasonably accurate. I certainlyhave studied a lot of documents, including "leaked" and non-leaked FOIPA documents.

I have written a book manuscript entitled THE UFO-FBI CONNECTION thatplaces the known-to-be-factual documents from th FBI and AIr ForceIntelligence and CIA into a historical order and context that proves US hadconvincing evidence in th early 50's,

One problem with what Mr. B. has written, "author of and consultantexpert on selected "leaked" or disinformational UFO cases/topics." is that this could be interpreted as meaning that I was an "author" of disinformational UFO cases/topics. This is BS. There are some people who have disagreed with my interpretation of some sighting cases, but I have not generated "disinformation." In all the more than100 papers I have written on the subject over the last 25 year, plus the UFOS ARE REAL-HERE'S THE PROOF book and so on, I havetried to maintain scientfic accuracy in reporting and analysis.

[CNI News thanks George Filer for permission to adapt this article fromFiler's Files #27, dated July 9, 1998. For information on receiving Filer'sFiles, email George at Majorstar@aol.com.]

Larry Hatch has developed one of the most complete UFO sighting databasescurrently available. His latest update of the *U* Database now lists over17,000 sightings from around the world. Each listing has a matrix of 64"attributes," among which are different types of craft by general shape.

Among the listed shapes are "SCRs" for saucers, disks or spheres having somevisible size, as opposed to a "round" point of light. Next are "Cigars,"connoting cigar-shaped, cylindrical or wingless fuselage-type craft. "Deltas"connote triangular or boomerang craft. The occasional rectangle, square andpentagonal geometries are included here as well; while hexagons and higherregular polygons are included among the "saucers." Finally, "SUBs" aresubmersibles -- anything entering or leaving bodies of water regardless ofshape.

Here are all sightings in Hatch's database, broken out by shape and decade ofsighting. (Note: a great deal of additional information on each sighting islisted in the actual database.)

The high proportion of CIGARs prior to the 1940s are mainly due to the "greatairship" waves of 1896 through 1910, mainly in the USA, Britain and NewZealand. Deltoids ("boomerangs," "black triangles," etc.) caught on in thelate 1970s and have figured prominently since. The 1980s were the virtualdoldrums in terms of overall numbers; and while the 1990s are "busier", theyare not much busier. Due to "overlap" where multiple shapes were reported,figures will not add up from left to right.

Some supposed UFO sightings have been accompanied by unexplained physical evidence that deserves serious scientific study, an international panel of scientists has concluded.

In the first independent scientific review of the controversial topic in almost 30 years, directed by physicist Peter Sturrock of Stanford University, the panel emphasized that it had found no convincing evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence or any violation of natural laws.

But the panel cited cases that included intriguing and inexplicable details, such as burns to witnesses, radar detections of mysterious objects, strange lights appearing repeatedly in the skies over certain locales, aberrations in the workings of automobiles, and radiation and other damage found in vegetation.

The 50-page review, being released today, asserts that the scientific community might learn something worthwhile if it can overcome the fear of ridicule associated with the topic and get some funding for targeted research to try to explain these occurrences.

"It may be valuable to carefully evaluate UFO reports to extract information about unusual phenomena currently unknown to science," the report stated, adding that such research could also improve understanding of, and in some cases debunk, supposed UFO events.

For example, Earth science researchers have eventually accepted several phenomena "originally dismissed as folk tales," including meteorites and certain types of lightning, the panel noted.

The findings are from a four-day workshop held in Tarrytown, N.Y., followed by a second three-day meeting in San Francisco, both last fall. The results are published in the current issue of the Society for Scientific Exploration, which was established by Sturrock.

The inquiry involved scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell and Princeton universities, the universities of Arizona and Virginia, and institutions in France and Germany, among others. A panel of nine physical scientists analyzed presentations by eight UFO investigators, who were encouraged to present their strongest evidence. The project was funded by Laurance S. Rockefeller through his LSR Fund because of a belief, the report said, that "the problem is in a very unsatisfactory state of ignorance and confusion."

The panel suggests the scientific community has suffered a failure of curiosity regarding UFOs. Despite an abundance of reports over the last 50 years, "and despite great public interest, the scientific community has shown remarkably little interest in this topic."

Asked about the conclusions, a sampling of scientists and officials outside the panel expressed surprise that a topic with such a high "giggle factor" might be reincarnated for serious study, possibly further blurring the lines between legitimate research and the "lunatic fringe." Some said they would never comment on the touchy topic, and some said they would reserve judgment until they had read the report.

In a telephone interview, Sturrock said that he hopes at least some scientists "will read the report and become curious. . . . The challenge is to do good science on this issue. It's difficult."

Some reported UFO incidents could have been caused by rare natural phenomena, such as electrical activity high above thunderstorms, or other known physical effects, the panel found. But there were some phenomena they could not easily explain.

The existing evidence from past cases is unlikely to produce either a solid debunking or other satisfactory explanation of the reports, the panel found. But "new data, scientifically acquired and analyzed (especially of well-documented, recurrent events) could yield useful information," it said.

To be credible to the scientific community, future UFO "evaluations must take place with a spirit of objectivity and a willingness to evaluate rival hypotheses" that so far has been lacking, the report said.

sparse, suggests microwave, infrared, visible and ultraviolet radiation, although "a few cases seem to point toward high doses of ionizing radiation, such as X-rays or gamma rays."

Radar detections of UFOs. Scientific study would require the cooperation of military authorities. An example occurred in January 1994, in the skies above Paris, when an airborne crew saw "a gigantic disk" more than 3,000 feet in diameter. The disk was detected on military radar for 50 seconds, slowed abruptly from 110 knots to zero, then disappeared.

Semi-regular sightings of strange lights (such as those in Hessdalen, Norway, and Marfa, Tex.), in some cases associated with measured magnetic disturbances.

Apparent gravitational and/or inertial effects, as in a case that occurred in Ohio in 1973. A number of witnesses, both on the ground and in an Army Reserve helicopter, saw lights, including a powerful green glow, and a "cigar-shaped gray metallic object," during which time the helicopter ascended although its controls were set for descent. Scientists apparently failed to investigate the one item of physical evidence -- a magnetic compass that had begun to spin during the event and was subsequently removed because it was unserviceable.

Injuries to vegetation and other ground traces. In a 1981 case in Trans-en-Provence, France, a witness reported an ovoid object emiting a low whistle as it flew in for a landing. Police and special UFO researchers found two concentric circles and other traces that, when subjected to laboratory analysis, showed the soil had been heavily compacted, though without major heating, and there were symptoms of aging in the plants there. A toxicologist concluded that some, though not all, of the effects could have been caused by powerful microwave radiation.

The Sturrock group said that because of advances in knowledge and technical capability, chances of significant learning are greater now than 30 years ago when the Air Force and the CIA supported a two-year investigation by the Colorado Project, directed by Edward U. Condon. That 1968 report concluded that "further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced."

The Air Force last year made public its latest report on the infamous 1947 incident near the town of Roswell, N.M., which gave rise to a whole flying-saucer culture of paranoia, up to and including the fictional television program "The X-Files." Titled "The Roswell Report: Case Closed," that report, like the Sturrock panel, reiterated earlier conclusions that there isno evidence of aliens or their spaceships.